speaker recommendations for a 12 x 12 room?


Hi,

I'm trying to convert a spare bedroom into a 2 channel listening room. Unfortunately, the room is 12 x 12, with 10 foot ceilings. Pulling the speakers well out into the room isn't really an option.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Ag insider logo xs@2xazkeith
My room is the same size as yours .
Along the same lines as Duke stated I have my positioning setup as Pryso suggests , the listening position is diagonally opposite from the speaker position . Sort of kitty corner or opposing corners . My ears are about 6 ft. from the front of the speakers . The speakers are about 6 ft. apart as well . While my soundstage is not the best that I have heard the rest of the factors are good . No base problems or dullness . I do have some room treatments in the corners and at the ceiling junctions as suggested by 8th Nerve .

Another thing that has not been addressed here is the fact that you will be in a nearfield listening situation . This will require some thought in equipment selection as well .
You will need a fairly resolving system that does well at low sound levels .

I find my Reference 3a Di Capo i's to work quite nicely for this situation with a tube amplifier .

Good luck .
My system's in a room of similar dimensions. I have tried several speakers, but I've settled on Harbeth Compact 7ES-3's. These work very well in small rooms. I don't really miss the extreme low end, although I haven't tried a sub yet.
Bdgregory, glad to hear it worked for you!

Pryso, I've found diagonal setups like you describe to often work well with planars, like Maggies and Quads. Now a dipole does have a bit smoother in-room bass than a monopole, according to an AES paper by James M. Kates, so the symmetry of a true diagonal setup is probably okay. But with a monopole speaker, my suggestion would be to not go all the way to a true diagonal but somewhere in between, to get the low frequency sources asymmetrical (with respect to the walls) in the horizontal plane.

That's my theory, anyway.

Duke
I recommend trying to stick with sealed boxed, medium sized book-shelf designs if you can, which blend easier in small rooms. Try to mate the speakers to the size of the space. Getting large speakers isn't a good fit, with too much boomy, bloaty bass energy YOU CAN'T get rid of! You can EQ it out a bit though. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend you get a Rives Audio "PARC" for your room,(you'll 100% DEFINITELY need one) to fix all your inevitable bass modes you won't be able to get away without having otherwise. In a "closed in" room, I also suggest some cooler running solid state gear.
If your'e trying to put your speakers right up against a wall, you'll be having some acoustical issues, that ported speakers designs don't really glean towards. A better blend with near wall speakers is acoustic suspension, sealed. If you are into some classical, instrumental, vocals, and some occasional rock pop, you can get into some panel or electro static speakers, if that's your cup. But, I say stay with medium sealed speakers, personally. If you go ported, consider putting em out in the room a tad more than perhaps you like (regardless of where the port is on the speaker)
What kind of music do you listen to however, and how loud(er, what's your life-style like?)? Do you plan any acoustic treatments? Cause if not, you should consider certain designs over others.
So, a few things to consider. But, with the 10 foot ceiling in that room, you can at least get 28-30" stands to work well, and have no problem at all with ceiling reflections- which often mandates more controlled dispersion designs, without acoustics on the ceiling. So your options of speaker design are wide open, otherwise -which is good.
So go listen to speakers you like, and maybe get em to let you bring em home!
BTW, what have you liked in the past?...
Personally, I don't like the idea of bigger woofers in that small room! It's like trying to fit a Mack truck into a small garage! Basically, there's gunna be problems.(mainly too much extra bass engergy to get rid of, without radical room treatments/construction - not practical.).
Trying to control the dispersion of your speakers by using larger woofers (that are likely focusing the sound in their respective regions more) I think is the wrong way of going about dealing with acoustical issues in your small space. There are certainly better ways to hear more "direct sound" than reflected than that. But, if you can't get the speakers out from the walls, and you have to have your listening chair towards the back, then consider something to break up the sound on the sidewalls then. (toe-in for tonality, not for reasons of side-wall reflections)
If you have to have your speakers up near the front wall, you can also move your chair out towards the speakers, which would help. However, you need to consider whatever position ends up getting flat response from your speakers - where ever that ends up in relation to your chair, and vice-versa.
I say find the speakers you want first, then worry about setup and acoustics